In a statement issued Thursday morning, the Anti-Defamation League condemned the Spanish parliament vote urging the conservative government to recognize “Palestine.”
The vote came only hours after two Palestinian terrorists massacred Jewish worshippers at a Jerusalem synagogue in Har Nof. Four rabbis were murdered while at prayer and one policeman was killed in a shootout with the terrorists.
The non-binding motion calling on the government to “recognize Palestine as a state” in coordination with any similar move by the European Union, passed almost unanimously in the lower house of Spain’s parliament. 319 parliamentarians voted in favor, two opposed, and there was one abstention.
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Garcia-Margallo expressed satisfaction at the result of the vote, which aims to impose a “two-state solution” onto Israel.
The actions of Spain’s parliament follow similar moves in Britain and Ireland last month. French parliamentarians will also vote on the matter on November 28. So far, none of these country’s governments have heeded the calls to officially recognize “Palestine.”
Sweden, however, officially recognized a Palestinian state on October 30, becoming the first EU member in western Europe to do so. Yet that decision sparked an ongoing diplomatic crisis between Sweden and Israel.
Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, wrote in the statement decrying the Spanish vote:
“On a day of mourning across Israel and in Jewish communities around the world, the Spanish parliament saw fit to urge its government to recognize a Palestinian state. This insulting decision will not contribute to peace, and will only encourage the Palestinian Authority’s intransigence on direct negotiations with Israel.”
“While other European governments have not followed Sweden’s reckless act of unilateral recognition, these so-called symbolic parliamentary votes in Spain – and earlier in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and forthcoming in France – undermine confidence in a constructive role for the European Union to promote Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.”
Israel issued a similar response to the Spanish parliament’s vote, while also criticizing Spain for its decision to hold this vote instead of condemning the Palestinian terror attack.
“The declaration of the Spanish parliament only distances the chance of reaching an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, because it encourages the Palestinians to become more extreme in their positions,” a foreign ministry statement said.
“It would have been better if the Spanish parliament had instead chosen to do the right thing by condemning the abominable slaughter carried out by inflamed Palestinians in a synagogue in Jerusalem.”
